A memory card introduces all kinds of problems for a mobile OS. What goes there? Apps? User data? Documents? Or is it anything goes? What does the OS do when that card is removed? What if it’s removed during use? Sorry, but a memory slot introduces more problems than it solves. And since the market has determined that there is not one serious competitor to the iPad, the memory slot doesn’t even solve a marketing problem.

Are you saying that Apple users can’t be trusted not to remove a memory card that is currently in use?

My Android phone seems to handle removal of the memory card without issues. (Yeah, I make sure it is ready for removal first) And I keep apps, data, documents, and media on it.

And that dock connector doesn’t work if I want to plug a USB memory stick in for a quick file transfer. Unless I get an adapter to plug into the dock connector, then plug my USB stick into the adapter. Which seems like quite a hassle for something that is an industry standard.

This is why Android sells primarily to two kinds of users: Geeks, and folks who want a nice-ish touchscreen feature-phone. The Geeks (no offense intended, by the way — I’m one, too, albeit with different products) will put up with anything to get that one ext a feature. The rest don’t use their Android phones as smartphones at all. One wants every last bell and whistle, the other just wants something nice & cheap. Neither is a very desirable customer to quality app developers.

Incidentally, I have the USB dongle for my iPhone and iPad. I believe it’s in my end table drawer, where it’s been since our last trip to the beach. Most smartphone users — Android users included — don’t even bother with that little.

But… weren’t we talking about tablets? Indeed, we were. And for tablets, there are also two kinds of customers: iPad, and a few others, none important enough to name. (Other than the Kindle Fire, but that’s more of an Amazon Prime media device than a fully-functioning tablet.) Where is the Android tablet that can compete merely on price? And on ecosystem — fuddidaboudit. I know Google has promised to “double down” on Android tablets this year, but they can’t even run a simple music servicehttp://finance.yahoo.com/news/Google-Music-Is-A-Flop-siliconalley-508022999.html anyone uses. So where is the missing ecosystem going to come from?